May 2015 Meeting Minutes

Greetings – approximately 29 in attendance at the meeting.
Jim Browder called our meeting to order in the Eureka meeting room

Announcements / Share Table
Box of educational pamphlets and hand-outs
Photo of sun taken by Randy, used UV light filter

Library Report: Virginia Eckert

Welcome Visitors:
Tom Muse
Randy Tatum

Events and Individual Observing:
RAS member observing – Mars, Jupiter, Venus; Madhu set his telescope up in a public area and had 40-50 attendees
Science Museum – weathered out – rain
Astronomy Day – very successful. Many interested visitors. Kudos to Matthew Roy (and Leslie) for organizing a successful Astronomy Day; 17 RAS members helped; Matthew has a follow-up document that the board will discuss at the next board meeting;
Clover Hill – Great views of Jupiter; sky watch moved to Swift Creek Middle (not a bad site)
Pocahontas Middle School – Mars, Jupiter, Venus, approximately 150 attendees, members that helped were MichaelP, BettyW, KenW, Ray (had his 14” dob)
Hallsley

Belmead on the James Skywatch, Saturday June 13, 7:30 PM: Belmead is a beautiful dark sky location in Powhatan County. Please join us for an indoor discussion session followed by observing into the night near the mansion.
The entrance to Belmead is located at 5004 Cartersville Road, Powhatan, VA. A Google Map showing the location is at this link: https://goo.gl/maps/llnF3. Once you enter Belmead follow signs to the mansion. Hope to see everyone there.
Green Bank Star Quest, June 17-20: An excellent star party at the Greenbank Observatory in West Virginia. Lots of activities, vendors, dark skies along with radio and visible light astronomy opportunities. This is 4 hours away from Richmond. They have an observatory and science center, radio and visual observing, a control room tour, vendors, door prizes, . . .
More information at http://www.greenbankstarquest.org/.

Presentation: ‘Open Source Astronomy Software,” Michael Pitchford
Michael discussed things to consider when you are looking for astronomy software.
The best software is
• Free
• Easy to find
• Works out of the box
• Support is free
He commented that Linux-based software has the most free titles. Linux was also used by NASA, CERN, ESO, the India Mars Orbiter program, Mars Rover. Linux is “bullet proof”.
He mentioned the importance of good software for things like Star Maps, Image Processing, and preparation for printed media/displays/publications.
He recommended Stellarium, Cartes du Ceil, and K-Stars

Madhu recommended Hello Northern Sky.

Michael talked about the large variety of apps for our cell phones.

A copy of his handout is below:

Free Astronomy Resources – In no particular order….
A general guide:
• http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-astronomy-software.htm

Categories

Solar Eclipse 2017

The big event of 2017 is going to be a total solar eclipse on Aug. 21. It’s the first total solar eclipse visible from the continental United States in nearly four decades. But, it’s only going to be visible in certain locations. the web sitespace.com has a very nice video of where you’ll be able to see it.

For us Virginians, that means travel to Tennessee, far western N. Carolina, or S. Carolina.